Conference mr1pst::music

592.0. "Happy Rhodes" by NODEX::ADEY (I don't do DECwindows) Fri Jan 07 1994 15:32

                         HAPPY RHODES/ECTO FAQ 

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Her full name is Happy Tyler Rhodes. She was born Kimberly Tyler Rhodes but
has always been called Happy by family and friends. When she was 16 she
had her name legally changed to Happy. She's 27 years old, born August 9,
1965 in Poughkeepsie, NY.

      The address to order Happy's music or write to her is:
 
                     Happy Rhodes  
                c/o  Aural Gratification
                     P.O. Box 380
                     Bearsville, NY
                                   12409-0380

The discography:                      
                                    
1) Rhodes Vol. I  (1986)                 
2) Rhodes Vol. II (1986)                 
3) Rearmament     (1986)                
4) Ecto           (1987)
5) Warpaint       (1991)
6) Equipoise      (1993)

All 6 are available on CD and cassette

CDs are $13.99  each        Postage for one CD is $2.00
Cassettes are $9.99 each    Postage for one tape is $1.50
                            Each additional tape or CD is $ .50 apiece

Price in English pounds is:
11 pounds per CD (postage included)
8 pounds per cassette (postage included)

The *postage* price to Australia:
Each CD                                               approx  US$4.50

The *postage* price to Germany: (info from Klaus)
4 CDs were $7.67, and $1.65 for each additional (um...ask Klaus :-))


Happy is getting limited distribution around the United States. Her
albums can usually be found in Tower Records, and some Sam Goodys and
Musiclands carry her also. Frequently Happy has been found in small
mom'n'pop stores too and specialty stores such as woman's bookstores
with independent music sections. Check the stores in your area (if you
can buy the music in a store it will save you postage and it will also
encourage the store to order more), but mail is always an option if
you can't find it locally.

Ladyslipper catalog has added a few Happy albums. From the catalog:

HAPPY RHODES
VOLUME I
Most debut releases are a bit tentative, and usually rightly so.  However,
this upstate New York native debuted herself into the music world with a
double cassette in 1986, obviously having no qualms about showing
herself-- and how thrilled we are that she's here!  Incredible voice, lots
of dramatic synthesizer, plus her earlier work such as this album is also
characterized by lovely acoustic interludes.  The artwork is an original
painting of something hungry-looking (out of Clive Barker's "Cabal"?).
Highly recommended (a comment you're going to be reading frequently among
the next few listings)!

HAPPY RHODES
VOLUME II
If you haven't read the review of Volume I yet, please do so now , then
order them both.  In fact, read on, and get them all!  I promise you won't
regret it, unless the covers give you nightmares, or something (and if
they do, perhaps this is the time to check out that great therapist your
freinds keep recommending).  Includes _Under and over the brink_, _One
alien_, _ To the funnyfarm_, _The revelation_.

HAPPY RHODES 
REARMAMENT
More electronic than her first two releases, this 1986 recording contains
shades of early Kate Bush (most notably _Lionheart_):  Lovely ethereal
vocals, multi-layered melodies that reach right in and hook you, and wry,
quirky lyrics.  Her first 3 albums were released within the same year; all
we can assume is that she's been singing, songwriting and playing since
the early embryonic stages, given the high level of sophisticaiton and
all-around superb quality.  Also some stylistic references
to Cocteau Twins.  Love this artist, and each of her recordings!

HAPPY RHODES
ECTO
Happy has a voice which will be (exhaustively) compared to Kate Bush and
Annie Lennox's; there's just no way to avoid the comparisons, but her
visions are a bit darker, say in the gothic-apocalyptic vein - or, rather ,
lots of blood red roses and peeling wallpaper kind of moods.  Anyway, it's
just the greatest voice, and when she self-harmonizes, the result is just
heavenly!  The instrumentation is highly melodic and sometimes heavy
synth, with sprightly counterpoints - "complex and labyrinthine but at
the same time totally natural."  This 1987 release is her 4th; highly
recommended!

HAPPY RHODES
WARPAINT
This 1991 release, Happy's 5th (not bad for a mere babe of 26!) and most
polished to date, "drifts into the listener's psyche like urgently
whispered messages from the spirit world".  This self-confessed music
addict brings a fresh energy to our collection of electronic/experimental
music by  combining fly-on-the-wall observations of life and living with
an impressive array of electronic effects, plus a touch of haunting
European-ish violin.  The result is warmer than most synthesizer
recordings, mostly due to her voice, which remains primarily in the lower
registers here (Annie Lennox, is she yours?).  Her bold and beautiful
expression, vision and artistry account for her large cult following
which we predict you'll be joining as soon as you experience her.  Highly
recommended!

Ladyslipper (a not-for-profit distributor)
PO Box 3124-R
Durham, NC 27715

 
As to which album(s) to get? That's tough to say, because they're all 
excellent (IMHO). There's a huge difference between 1 and 6, and the
progression is evident in the middle four. If you asked the people in 
the mailing list, you'd get lots of different answers. Of course, it's 
just about impossible to know what different people will like. My stock
answer is "get them all!" because I think they're all worth getting. 
Equipoise is her latest one so that might be the one to start with. If
you already have Equipoise, you might either want to go backwards and
go for Warpaint next, or you might want to start at the beginning with
Rhodes I, to see where she started. If you like Rhodes I and Equipoise,
it's almost certain you will want to get the rest. When Happy herself
was asked to pick out one of the early albums to send to an Ectophile,
she chose the album Ecto. 

FYI, if you ask Happy to autograph the CD(s) and/or tape(s), she will!


Happy has never had a major-label recording contract. All her music
has been released so far on Aural Gratification, a private label started 
and owned by Kevin Bartlett. Kevin started the label to release his own
music (he's quite well-known as a musician in the Albany area), then 
added Happy after they met.

The first 4 albums were recorded by Happy, all alone in the studio.
She played acoustic guitar and keyboards and used lots of overdubs.
She produced them all herself and even engineered quite a few of
the songs. Happy started out working as an apprentice engineer at
Cathedral Sound Studios in Rensselaer, New York, and learned the 
equipment by recording her own songs. Pat Tessitore, Cathedral's owner, 
was impressed by Happy's talent and encouraged her, even giving her 
free studio time to play around with the equipment and record her 
songs. When Happy met Kevin in 1986 and he encouraged her to let him 
release her music on AG, she had amassed enough songs for 2 albums. They
gathered together all the tapes of the various songs and VI and VII were
born. Later that year, Happy released Rearmament and Ecto came in 1987. 

Between Ecto and Warpaint, Happy and Kevin joined forces professionally
as Bartlett\Rhodes. They never released any music but did play live in
the Albany area often. In mid-1989 they decided to continue as they had
started, as separate artists. Happy then began work on Warpaint in 1990.

Warpaint and Equipoise were more professionally recorded (she and Kevin 
took out bank loans to make sure they were as high-quality they could
possibly make them) and uses more musicians, though it's mainly just her 
and  Kevin. They also co-produced the two albums. 

H&K are still personal partners. Kevin is also working very hard on the
promotional side of Happy's career while keeping a full schedule with 
his own career as a musician (he's released well over a dozen albums,
available only on cassette at this time), producer (Happy, Mitch Elrod),
and free-lance work on commercials, MTV and Sesame Street.

{Live}

Happy has played live in and around the Albany, NY area for many years.

On March 18, 1992 Happy played live for the first time in years and it
was the first time with a full backup band.

>From the pages of Ecto-the mailing list:
"Happy has surrounded herself with a group of very talented musicians,
all of whom have a deep respect for her talent. Kevin Bartlett turned out 
to be very dynamic on stage, playing a variety of instruments (keyboards,
steinberger electric guitar, 12 string electric guitar, and 12 string
acoustic, and electronic drum pads).  Mark Foster played acoustic and 
electronic drums, and was quite impressive.  It was nice to see that the 
electronc drums were manually triggered instead of sequenced.  In fact,
I don't know if anything was sequenced in the entire show; if there was
any, it was minimal.  Fretted and fretless bass was played by Ray Jung
("We love you, Ray!"), who has had experience with a wider range of 
musicians, having played with people such as Bill Bruford (of Yes and
King Crimson).  The second set of keyboards, as well as BVs, were handled
by Martha Waterman.  You may recognize her name--she played piano on the
studio version of "In Hiding."  And finally, main BVs were handled quite
admirably by Kelly Bird.  She was able to blend beautifully with Happy's
voice so that at times it actually sounded like Happy was multitracked."
                                                              Jeff Burka

A few days later, on March 21, 1992, Happy sold out the 800-seat University
Museum Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

>From the pages of Ecto:

"Incredible." "Mindblowing." "Astounding."  "Spellbinding."  "Magical."

These concerts provided the very first opportunity for a "Happy Gathering
of Ectophiles." Many Ectophiles from the Northwest, and a few from other
parts of the United States (Illinois, Colorado and even Alaska) converged 
on Albany and Philadelphia for these concerts. May there be many, many more!

Full details of these concerts via Ectophile impressions can be found in
the Ecto archives beginning with Digest 187.  

Happy is hoping to tour in support of Equipoise, but the details aren't
worked out yet. Any appearances she makes will be posted in rec.music.gaffa,
rec.music.misc, rec.music.cd, alt.music.alternative and rec.music.info,
as well as (of course) Ecto.


{Background}

She was a very lonely child and has always been a loner. She suffered
from depression as an adolescent and teenager and sought solace and
help in the music she listened to (Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Bach) and
in writing songs herself. She "wrote out" the demons in her mind,
never guessing that the songs would someday end up on albums that would
be cherished by other people. 

Happy is an interesting, intelligent, singer/songwriter/musician who 
cares deeply about her music and makes music to last, music that matters.
Happy's lyrics can sear your heart and soul in its intensity and
introspectiveness. Her lyrics are very often dark and are nearly all
autobiographical, but they are almost all about emotions. Human emotions
are universal, so many of her songs touch nerves in other people too.

Many of her songs are about depression, some are about suicidal feelings
and some are cynical, but there are also songs about hope and light,
with a "you must love yourself before anyone else can love you" point of
view. She does have a sense of humor, and it comes out in a few songs,
but most of her songs are very serious. Not that they are all slow,
dirge-like ballads. Many songs are fast-paced and very melodic. You could
enjoy the music and Happy's voice(s) without ever paying attention to the
lyrics. The lyrics add another layer to be fascinated by if you choose to
delve further, though.


{Fans}

Happy's fan base is small but growing and we here in Ecto think it's 
exciting to see how she's progressing and to "be with her" at each step
of her career from now on.

Happy Rhodes fans are very passionate about promoting her music.
Record companies have ignored her (and, so far, continue to) I think 
because they don't really know what to do with her. She can't be easily
put into a box and labled. We all think that it's extremely unfair
and wrong that she's unknown and obscure. We want to change that.
It's only at a small grass-roots level at the moment, but will grow
as more people become aware of Happy, fall in love with her music,
and care enough to spread the word about her.

H&K are *very* aware of Ecto and are kept informed of it's topics of 
conversation. They are deeply appreciative of everyone's interest and
have great affection for Ecto. This affection manifested itself after
the Philadelphia concert when Happy and Kevin made it a point to invite
Ectophiles to a post-concert "Schmooze-With-Philly-Bigwigs" party at
the Penn Towers Hotel. They didn't have to invite us, they wanted to.

{History of Ecto}

Semi-regular postings about Happy Rhodes have appeared in rec.music.gaffa
(Love-Hounds) since January 1989 via Vickie Mapes, who "found" Happy in
1988 and played her regularly on her radio show called Suspended In Gaffa.
The release of Warpaint in April 1991 prompted many gaffa readers to try
her music for the first time. Many of those people liked what they heard
and went on to complete their collection with the early tapes. As discussion
grew to deafening levels, it was pointed out to the Happy Rhodes fans that,
no, not *every* Kate Bush fan will like Happy's music, and could we please
start talking about Kate again? As many gaffians wanted to continue to talk
about Happy, but wanted to respect the wishes of those who had no interest,
on June 13, 1991 Jessica Dembski created the mailing list Ecto.

The list has been *very* active, with over 145 members, and topics on any
subject of interest to Ectophiles are welcome to be discussed. We talk 
about other artists besides Happy (female artists mainly, but recommend-
ations of male artists are fine). Non-music topics seen in Ecto range from 
movies to politics and just about everything in between. 

To join Ecto-the mailing list, write to Jessica at:

[email protected]    To contribute:  [email protected]

Tell Jessica which you would rather have, Ecto as loose mail, or as
a Digest.

GIFs, lyrics to all the albums, articles, interviews, reviews, other 
tidbits and Ecto Archives are available from:

hardees.rutgers.edu by anonymous ftp, in pub/hr
(Internet address is:  128.6.18.2.)

For those without FTP capability, Doug Burks has offered to send anything
in the archives to you via e-mail. Write him at:

[email protected]

If you happen to see Happy mentioned anywhere, please pass it along to
Ecto, or an Ectophile who can send it on. Happy is just beginning to be
"discovered" and it's interesting to know what other people think, to 
hear reviews (good or bad) and to keep track of where she's mentioned
and in what context. No mention is too small. Thank you in advance.

     ==============================================================
      Please write with any comments or suggestions about this FAQ

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Vickie                "Fight for the right     "My ears are lucky to hear
[email protected]    to have monsters" TA    these glorious songs" HR
                                _________
"Imagination sets in, then     |_  _ | _   The Happy Rhodes mailing list
 all the voices begin" KB      |__|_ ||_|  [email protected]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Searching for Happy Rhodes reviews, articles, interviews, mentions
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



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    Happy Rhodes : Kate Bush :: Emmet Rhodes : Paul McCartney ?
    
    

    Happy's new one is out. It's called 'Building the Colossus'. 
    This one seems a bit more accessible then her previous releases.
    That can be good or bad. Time will tell.
    
    Ken....